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Brenner needs to step inside a classroom

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I respond to the March 9 Capital Insider, which reported that state Rep. Andrew Brenner,
R-Powell, said that public education in America is socialism, and that the solution is complete
privatization.

Judge Francis E. Sweeney of the Ohio Supreme Court wrote for the 4-3 majority, “We send a clear
message to lawmakers: The time has come to fix the system. Let there be no misunderstanding. Ohio's
public school-funding scheme must undergo a complete systematic overhaul.”

In December 2002, the fourth decision was handed down by the Supreme Court that legislators must
do something about the way public schools are financed. Instead of criticizing the jobs teachers
are doing, and that is what Brenner seems to be doing, why doesn’t he do his job?

Brenner was elected to serve the community. I have never seen him walk through my building
during a school day so how can he judge the job I, a 30-year educator, am doing?

He mentioned in his blog post, “Public education in America is socialism, what is the solution?”
that Bill Gates can't find qualified workers in America. So he must be saying that the 93,000
people employed by Microsoft around the world must not be very smart.

He said “teacher unions are running the schools.” Teacher unions do not decide curriculum,
schedules, etc. I have spent more of my time dealing with state initiatives (OGT testing,
evaluation systems, the Ohio Performance Assessment Pilot Project) in the past five years than ever
before. Let me teach.

Brenner’s definition of socialism comes from the Wikipedia source. Most professional educators
refuse to accept Wikipedia as a reliable source to be used by our students. Why does he use it?

He is the product of a public-school education. Was he unfairly educated? Was he able to achieve
a college diploma?

He mentioned privatizing schools, which must be a reference to charter schools, in which I know
he has a vested interest.

Not only does he take his ideas directly from the American Legislative Exchange Council, but he
can take campaign money from charter-school owners. How many of them have been successful?

Let’s compare report cards of public schools and charter schools. It’s a sad comparison, even
with the increasingly stringent policies the legislature is forcing onto public schools.

I invite Brenner into my classroom to teach for one day. Maybe I can learn something.